The Life and Times of Duccio de Luca
by EADF
Summary: Having a difficult time at school, Ricardo sets about to change his image and finds the answer in one of his ancestors. With the help of his Father, Ricardo is going to find out what exactly made his ancestor so special.
1. Chapter 1

Ricardo wanted to kick everything in his sight. So far, all that was in his view was a wooden door that seemed so fragile that a small gust of wind would break it down. But that would have to do.

He raised his leg up and kicked it hard and just as he thought; the door broke into a hundred small pieces flying everywhere at once. Ricardo covered his face but unfortunately a small wooded piece flew towards him and scratched his cheek.

"Damn!" he screamed and flung his schoolbag on the ground.

"What the hell?" a man's voice called from inside.

Ricardo wanted to stamp on his bag, but it probably wasn't a good idea to do so in front of his Father. He looked up at the short stocky balding man in front of him who was studying the broken pieces of the front door of the house.

"Dad, I'm just having a rough day, okay?" Ricardo said, entering the house.

"Pick up your schoolbag." His Father told him. Ricardo groaned but turned back to do as his Father asked. "Do you know how long it took me to build this door with my own two hands?"

Ricardo bent over to pick his bag and then groaned again as all the books fell off his bag. Could this day get any worse? "I don't know…an hour?"

His Father snorted. "Well…that's not the point. The point is that you've been doing this everyday now and I'm getting tired of building new doors every day when I could be building tables and chairs."

"Did our dining table break again?" Ricardo asked and dragged himself inside again.

"I put something really heavy on it." His Father said.

Ricardo snorted. "You mean like a plate."

"That's not the point." His Father said. "What has been getting you in such a bad mood anyway?"

"You mean apart from the fact that all the furniture in our house is built by you and that everything keeps breaking every two days?"

"That's not the point." His Father scratched his head. "But…er…you've been more surly than usual."

Ricardo slumped down on the sofa and sighed. The sofa creaked under his weight and started to sway. "It's those kids at school. We have a project coming up where we're supposed to write a report on one of our ancestors who have accomplished something."

"Ancestors?" His Father started to pick the pieces of the door.

"I don't know." Ricardo felt the sofa creak more and got up quickly. He still had the bruises of when the sofa had broken two nights ago. "Anyway, everyone has someone or the other in their family who has accomplished something. They have family who have served in wars and invented stuff and even done something for the community. What about us? Did anyone in our family ever accomplish anything? Everyone just keeps making fun of me!"

His Father put the pieces in the trash. "Well I have my own business of crafting furniture."

Ricardo snorted again. "Okay, let me rephrase that. Did anyone in our family ever have any amount of success? Or are we all losers?"

"That was uncalled for." His Father warned and then sat down on a chair that creaked loudly. "But you have a point." Then his eyes suddenly lit up. "Say, this project, does it have to be someone in a particular century or anyone since the beginning of time?"

"Like the early man or dinosaurs?" Ricardo said sarcastically.

"That's not the point!" His Father said.

"Uh…I guess anyone." Ricardo sat down on the sofa again. "So did we know any dinosaurs?"

"No, but there was someone on our family a long time ago who was successful. Very successful."

Ricardo leaned closer excitedly. "Really? Our family?"

"Uh-huh."

"Tell me about it. What did he do?"

His Father grinned. "I can show you."

Just then the sofa and chair creaked loud and then broke with a loud snap simultaneously, throwing Father and son on the floor.

"Where are we?" Ricardo asked. His Father had led him to the forest and after walking for two hours, Ricardo was certain they were lost.

"It's right here." His Father pushed back a hanging tree and pointed excitedly. "There it is!"

Ricardo saw the large white building in front of him with grey doors and tinted windows. "Uh…isn't this where you used to work as a janitor before you got fired."

"Uh-huh." His Father walked forward and rummaged in his pocket for something.

"But we could have just taken the main road to get here." Ricardo said and rubbed the scratches on his arm where he had been pricked by thorns.

"That's not the point. The point is that we had a Father-son adventure." His Father removed a key and put it in the lock of one of the grey doors.

"Why are we here?" Ricardo asked. "What does this have to do with my project?"

"You'll see." The lock clicked and he pushed open the door. "Come on."

Ricardo followed him inside the darkness and then stumbled on something and fell flat on his face. "Shit!"

The lights came on then and his Father held out his hand. "Oh, I should have told you to watch out for the buckets."

Ricardo took the offered hand and got up. "Is that why you were fired? For leaving buckets near the doors where everyone can trip and break their noses?"

"Nope." His Father opened up another door and Ricardo gasped. The facility was empty but nowhere did it look abandoned as he had thought so from the outer walls. In front of him was a large room with hundreds of small cubicles with only strange white tables.

Ricardo stepped forward to inspect and then frowned. "These are weird looking tables."

His Father patted him on the back. "They are not tables." He said excitedly. "They're a machine of sorts. I saw them being used. They have the power to transport someone to the past to relive memories or some mumbo-jumbo."

"You mean a time machine?" Ricardo snorted. "These little things?"

"Nah!" His Father opened up one of the cubicles. "I saw a man being plugged into this. Then another would start the computer and on it they would supervise the person in the machine as he went back to the past to meet his ancestor."

"You're kidding." Ricardo said and let his hand sail over the smooth surface of the table that had a glass center.

"Saw it with my own two eyes." His Father put his hands on his hips. "One night, I tried to use it, but accidentally dropped a little water on it and it short-circuited."

"A little water?" Ricardo raised an eyebrow.

"That's not the point!" His Father sighed. "Okay, it was a bucket of water. But the point is that I think I know how to use it." He pushed the small computer beside the machine and the screen flickered twice before starting up.

"Um…so?"

"The point is that we could use it to let you relive the memories of your ancestor. The successful one." His Father found the keyboard and started to type on it. On the screen, red bold letters appeared to show that the password was incorrect.

"This is crazy."

"The point is also that I've heard it helps you gain the skills of your ancestor. I saw one of them whose ancestor was some sort of murderer or something." His Father typed something else that resulted in the red letters appearing again. "The man was then jumping around the roofs and doing some sort of acrobats and such."

Ricardo started to negate this idea again and then realized that if this was indeed possible, then he too would be able to gain all the skills that his ancestor had that made him successful. No longer would he be the loser at school.

He could imagine it already. Girls would line up for him asking him to pick one of them. The boys would bow down to him and choose him to be the captain of whatever team he wanted to be in. His teachers would only sign A's on his papers. Life would be perfect!

"I'm in."

"What the hell was the password?" His Father scratched his head. "Ah-ha!" He typed something quickly and the screen lit up with green words: Password Accepted.

"What was the password?"

"Templar stuff." His Father said and gestured him to lie down.

"Okay, but I'm your son. You could tell me what the password is." Ricardo climbed up the machine and lay down.

"No, that was it. The password is: Templar stuff." His Father typed something. "I did see this once being operated by a really cute girl. I think I know what to do."

"Let's do this." Ricardo closed his eyes, ready for the machine to do its work.

Something slid over his head and Ricardo blinked. "What's that?"

"Relax." He could hear his Father typing furiously.

Ricardo eased his muscles when he felt a spark of electricity jolt his spine. "Yowch!"

"Oops." His Father said. "That wasn't supposed to happen."

"You do know how to work this, right?" Ricardo felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead.

"Hmm."

"Then…" but his voice was suddenly cut off and he gasped as he found himself surrounded in room with white floors and walls. "Where am I?"

"I don't know." His Father's voice boomed all around him.

"Where are you? Where am I?"

"Ah!" Here it is. 1462."

The room melted before his eyes and Ricardo was suddenly thrust into another room. He saw cream walls all around him and curtains and then a red carpet. He looked all around him and at first saw nothing. Then suddenly he heard the sounds of a screaming woman.

"Spingi! Spingi!" he heard another woman say. Ricardo could only see a blur of faces.

"Puttana! You're a puttana!" the woman screamed.

"Then deliver this baby all by yourself if I'm such a puttana!" The woman snapped. The faces finally became clearer and Ricardo saw he was in the bedroom of a woman who was giving birth. Before him was a maid who was scowling at the woman on the bed.

"Arrgh! I'll kill you! Get this baby out of me!" the woman screamed.

A man walked in through the doors then. "Darling, calm down."

"You calm down, you stupida mucca!" she screamed. Her light brown hair was matted on her forehead and she was sweating profusely. Her skin was almost red now and she kept muttering obscenities in another language. The man with long dark hair cowered in the corner.

"But..."

"Zitto! You try pushing a big head out of your body!" the woman screeched and cursed him some more.

"That just means our baby will be intelligent. A big head is a sign of intelligence."

Ricardo lit up. Intelligence! It ran in his genes!

The woman picked up a candlestick and threw it at the man, hitting him on the head. "Intelligence my foot! Speaking of that, I'd like to shove one right up your culo!"

The husband rushed to the other side of the room as a trickle of blood dripped down the side of his face.

The maid went down her knees and then smiled widely. "Almost…almost…si…I can pull the baby now."

The Mother uttered one last scream before slumping. The maid got up and wrapped a blanket around the baby. "It's a boy!" she cooed.

The Father rushed to her side. "And what a boy it is." He told his wife who was now heaving for breath. He took the baby in his arms and raised it. "He shall be called- Duccio. Duccio de Luca!"

"Don't hold the baby that high, idiota!"

Just then Ricardo felt another zap up his spine and the scene before him faded. He blinked twice and saw that he was back in the white building. "What happened?" he asked dimly.

"Time to go."

"Was that him? Douche? Douche-eee-o?" Ricardo asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Doo-chee-oh!" His Father corrected. "That was him alright."

"Why can't we do more?" Ricardo asked. "I want to see and learn more of his life."

"Soon." His Father switched off the computer and rolled up the cables in his hands. "Right now we have to leave. It's almost dawn and they would be arriving soon."

"They?"

"The people who work here."

Ricardo sat up. "Wait…this isn't an abandoned building?"

"Uh…no!" His Father pulled him up and then bent down to search for the wires of the machine. "You think a building with this kind of machinery would be abandoned?"

"We broke in? We're trespassing?"

"Pshaw! Yu knew that." His Father said. "We'll deal with those problems when we come to that point. Now help me drag this machine out."

"Now we're stealing?" Ricardo was astounded.

"Yeah, you want to see more, don't you?"

Ricardo hesitated, and then thought about what the knowledge and skills could do for his reputation. He could imagine all the girls vying for his attention as he became successful. Whatever his ancestor was successful for was bound to be profitable for him as well.

"Let's do this!" he grinned.


	2. Chapter 2

"Careful…..careful…."

Ricardo pushed the animus through the glass doors and held his breath until it was finally outside. "Damn!" he muttered when they had managed to push it further. "Now what? Are we going to push this all the way home?"

His Father put his hands on his hips and looked at the machine in front of him. He had wrapped the cables around the computer and had propped it on top of the animus and although the animus looked light, it weighed a lot more than they had expected.

"Don't you wish we had skipped the forest adventure and driven here now?" Ricardo chided.

"The point was for us to reconnect." His Father said, scratching his head and then wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his pale blue shirt that was now soaked in sweat.

"Come on. Let's push it all the way home." Ricardo said and started to push when his Father stopped him.

"We have to use our brains." He told him. "What would our ancestor have done?"

Ricardo shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't spend too much time on that machine to sync with Douche."

"Show some respect. Your ancestor was far from a brainless jerk. It's Duccio. Don't you forget that."

Ricardo sighed. "Whatever. Can we go home now?"

"WE can go home." His Father said. "The question is how do we get this thing home?"

Ricardo drummed his fingers on the machine. "Hmmm…how about we just carry it and take short breaks in between."

"And we should reach home in two days with that method." His Father said dryly. "No wait! I've got it! I'll go home and get the truck and then we could put the animus at the back of it and take it home!"

"Okay, but don't you think we shouldn't leave the animus unattended?"

"You're staying put." His Father said. "I'll return soon."

"What? No!" Ricardo cried. "I'm not staying here in the middle of nowhere, in front of a creepy building and looking after the animus. No freaking way!"

"Son!" His Father put his hand on his shoulder and looked at him seriously. "There comes a time in every man's life when he must put aside his fears and stand up to the occasion. Think of what your ancestor would have done?"

Ricardo nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah…except I'm pretty sure his Father didn't leave him alone at a forest in the dark as bait for escaped criminals and wild animals."

"You'll be fine." His Father said and started to walk away.

"But I don't even have a cell phone." Ricardo said.

"You don't need one." His Father said without turning back.

"But what if I get attacked and have to call the police? There might me a serial killer roaming these parts, you know." Ricardo called.

"You've been watching too many horror movies, son. Anyway, the point is we can't call the police when we've just trespassed and stolen something."

"Great! I forgot we're thieves."

His Father did turn then, but continued to walk without looking. "We're just borrowing and…uff!" He banged against a tree and fell. "That hurt."

Ricardo ran over to him. "You okay, Dad?" He helped his Father up and made him rest against the tree.

"My head is all woozy." He said, swaying and holding onto his forehead.

"You're in no condition to walk all the way home." Ricardo said. "You stay here while I go home and get the truck."

"No…I'll…." But His Father tripped over his own feet and Ricardo helped him up again.

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon."

"But…I don't have a cell phone either."

Ricardo started to jog. "You won't need it, remember?"

An owl hooted somewhere in the darkness and his Father jumped. "But what about serial killers?"

"Too many horror movies and crime shows, Dad." Ricardo said and jogged back home.

"I can't believe we finally got it home." Ricardo and his Father looked down at the animus, glad that it didn't suffer too many scratches. Just a scuff of when it had been hauled onto the back of the truck and another on the other side while off-loading it from the truck when it had slipped from their fingers and almost fallen upside-down.

"Technically, it's in the garage." Ricardo said.

"Which is also part of our home." His Father connected. "The point is so what if it hadn't fit in through the front door. It fit well in the garage."

Ricardo frowned as he looked at the cobwebs on the walls, the dust collected in the corners of the garage and somewhere around here, he could hear the squeaking of mice. He felt a shiver run through him.

"You know I'll be spending a LOT of time lying on it, right? In this garage?" Ricardo gagged when he saw a large rat scurry away. "In this DIRTY garage."

"I'll clean it up. Soon." His Father said. "First, we have to plug in this computer so I can track your progress."

Ricardo looked all around him and saw an outlet behind a carton of toilet paper. "There it is."

His Father went and picked up a toilet paper roll. "I've been looking for this."

"The outlet is behind the carton." Ricardo sighed.

His Father dropped the roll back into the box and then pushed it away. He unrolled the cable and plugged it in. "Here goes."

As he plugged it in, they heard a loud crackle before the lights went off. "Oops." His Father said and they found themselves in complete darkness.

"Could anything else go wrong?" Ricardo groaned.

"Yes. There could have been a spark that could fly into this box of toilet rolls and catch fire." His Father said thoughtfully. "Since we don't have a working fire extinguisher we wouldn't have been able to put out the flames that would eventually spread over the other cartons as well…"

"It was a rhetoric question, Dad." Ricardo said. He paused and then asked hesitatingly. "We were going to end up okay right? In this morbid scenario you were discussing."

"Sure." His Father said, his voice pitchy and shaky.

Ricardo grumbled and then walked out the garage. "Where the hell is the fuse box?"

"Er…in the garage." His Father said. "I'm already on it."

Ricardo walked back in and bumped into the animus. "Uff! Damn! Get the lights on."

"And…one more thing….and…got it." His Father pulled on something and the lights came on. "See? Nothing to it."

"What about this thingamajig?"

"It should work fine." His Father plugged in the machine and the computer. The lights overhead flickered but didn't go off. "Let's do this."

"Now? But I'm tired. I've been up all this time and I'm hungry." Ricardo said.

"Quit being a baby and get in."

Ricardo sighed and climbed up the machine. "I hope this works after all the trouble we went through."

"Yeah, it will." His Father replied confidently. "Now just relax."

Ricardo closed his eyes and heard rather than see something slide over his eyes. He heard his Father type on the keyboard and then he heard a loud whirring sound. Then nothing. And then, he was back in the white room, hearing only muffled sounds and then he heard a bloodcurdling scream.

Ricardo gasped. "Dad? Dad are you okay? Did something go wrong?"

No answer.

"Dad? Dad?"


	3. Chapter 3

"I can't be stuck here!" Ricardo wailed. "Dad? Please! Where are you?"

When he still didn't hear a reply, Ricardo slumped to the ground in defeat. "I'm stuck here! I didn't get to live out my teenage years. I didn't get to try exciting stuff and go on adventures. I didn't find a girl to like me and I didn't get to go to college!"

Ricardo lay down on the floor, feeling the warmth and the static emanate under him. He turned to lie on his stomach with an arm outstretched. "My life is over! No one will ever find my corpse!"

"Yeesh!" His Dad said. "It's been a minute and you're having a breakdown?"

"Dad!" Ricardo quickly got up. "You're alive! I thought something happened to you and I would be stuck in this, whatever this is, forever!"

"I saw a massive rat, son." His Father's voice trembled. "It was brown and stripy and had whiskers. I thought for sure I had suffered a heart attack"

"Uh Dad, you must have seen a cat. My cat, Bosco to be precise." Ricardo told him.

"We don't have a cat."

Ricardo scratched his head; glad he was somewhere else right now. And then he realized his body was still in the real world. "Yes we do. You see, Molly gave it to me to feed the cat one day and I said sure. I thought if I do this one kind deed, then she would go out for me. When she didn't return for hours, I went to her house and the neighbors told me she had left the city and her new house didn't allow pets."

"She abandoned the cat?" His Father was horrified.

"I know, right?" Ricardo was glad his Father had been moved by that. "By then I had fallen in love with Bosco and kept him."

"That's mighty kind of you, son." His Father commented. "But the point is that I am allergic to cats, so you're just gonna have to give him away."

"Dad, you can't be allergic to cats." Ricardo said. "I've had him for more than a year now."

"What?" His Father said. "How did I not know this?"

Ricardo shrugged. "I don't know."

"That explains the hair I found in your room." His father said thoughtfully. "And I thought you were shaving your legs."

"What? No!" Ricardo said. "Anyway, feed Bosco will you? And when are we getting started?"

"Right now."

Ricardo heard the tapping of keyboard buttons and looked all around him. He felt before he even saw, a bright warm light spreading all over the white confines, until it his surroundings melted away and he found himself being thrust into another era.

_Firenze 1476_

Ricardo had never even been out of his own town and so now finding himself standing on a street in a different country and a different era, was sending adrenaline pumping through him.

"Relax son." He heard his Father say. "You're stats are hiking and I'll have to pull you out."

Ricardo relaxed and then looked down at himself. He was dressed in dark brown breeches, boots almost up to his knees, a purple shirt and a brown vest on top of it. His hands touched the leather belt and he could feel his pockets full of coins. Adjusting his cap, he started to walk and then stopped.

Suddenly, he wasn't himself anymore. His movements differed and he strode confidently, without his usual hunch. His mind was invaded by words he didn't understand at first and then suddenly it all started to make sense. The words in his mind were Italian.

His own thoughts were being quickly replaced by different memories and when he opened his eyes again, he wasn't himself anymore.

"Duccio!" a man called from the fruit stalls. He tossed an apple at him and he caught it in his palms.

"Carlo!" he called and then sprinted towards him. "How goes the day?"

"Eh." His friend said, his brown curls bobbing as he shook his head. "Haven't seen a pretty girl all morning."

"Well then you shouldn't look at your sisters first thing in the day." Duccio said, biting into the apple.

Carlo slapped his back and laughed. "Bastardo! That didn't stop you from going after them."

Duccio tossed the rest of his apple away and spread his arms. "What can I say? I am a charitable man."

Carlo grinned. "Sei un cane!"

"Let us walk now." Duccio said. "I have only a few hours before I am expected home."

"Where does your Father think you are?" Carlo asked.

"With my tutor." Duccio said. "And I would spend more time with the tutor if he was a her instead. A beautiful curvaceous woman."

"I'd be interested in my studies too then." Carlo said. "Ah! Look there." He pointed towards a blonde girl, walking towards the market with a basket in her hand. "She's pretty."

"Belloza Cellini? Her Father would kill us if she doesn't already." Duccio said. "Heard she has quite a temper. And her brothers are all guards. Do you know what they would do to us?"

Carlo shivered. "The last boy who spoke to her was dragged through the streets and then beaten up badly."

"Let us find someone else. Someone more docile." Duccio said.

They walked down the streets, leering at the girls and even singing songs at the girls, but they were rewarded every time with a shoe thrown at their heads.

Duccio dusted off his cap. The last girl they had flirted with had punched him in the face and when he was down, had repeatedly kicked him in the stomach.

"Stronzo." She had yelled and then spat at him.

"What is wrong with the girls of today?" Carlo said. "What happened to the days when they were meek and shy and giggled when you winked at them?"

"We should move to another city where the girls are easy to get." Duccio said, sitting down on a bench.

Carlo sat beside him. "Si, there are no girls here that will be impressed by our charms here." He said dejectedly.

Duccio leaned back against the wall. "You know what kind of girl I would like?"

"Si, you already said, a docile one."

"But also one who doesn't have any brothers. Or if she has any, let them be dull and weak so that we could beat them up."

Carlo snickered. "Si." He then sat up straight. "A girl like her."

Duccio looked to where his friend was pointing and saw a group of three girls giggling and chattering loudly. "Lei e bella."

The girl he saw was dressed in a beige dress and had her hair covered by a hairnet. It was her eyes that attracted him and he felt a smile spread his face when he saw the excitement in her voice as she gossiped with her friends. She looked so full of life and so beautiful. He stood up and adjusted his clothes and cap.

The girls were heading towards him and he leaned against the wall with one leg propped up. When the girls passed, he wore his best smile and when the girl laid her eyes on him, he winked at her.

The girl's cheeks became red and he saw her smile back at him. When they were gone, he sat down beside Carlo again. "Now that's the girl I want."

"Si, she is beautiful."

"Her dark hair and her golden eyes." He said, lost in his dreams.

"Dark hair? I thought you were looking at the redhead." Carlo said.

"There were other girls around her?" Duccio was in a daze as he replayed the moment when she had caught his eye. She had been so shy.

"Uh…the dark haired girl was Claudia Auditore." Carlo said.

"You know her?" Duccio asked excitedly.

"Everyone knows her."

"Splendido! Tell me where she lives. I will buy a lute and serenade her."

"Duccio, she is Claudia Auditore. You must have heard of her tales." Carlo said seriously.

"I will find out from her." Duccio said. "Where does she live?"

Carlo relented and gave him the address. "But I hope you know what you're getting yourself into."

Duccio got up and grinned. "Oh I know. Right under her skirts."

"Cane!" Carlo laughed. "Be careful."

"Oh I will be…very gentle." He said and ran off in the direction of her house.


	4. Chapter 4

Duccio had barely made it two steps, when he came across a group of boys his age, courting girls. They were playing the lute and singing songs. Then one of them, presented a girl with a bouquet of flowers and the girl let out a squeal of delight.

He imagined Claudia doing the same when he showed up at her doorstep. Then she would bat her eyelashes and smile shyly as he flirted with her. In no time at all, she would be in his arms and kissing him.

Duccio leaned against a pillar and removed his cap, smiling. Lost in his thoughts, he barely heard a noise as the pillar he thought he was leaning on, broke and he fell down on his face.

The group of boys and girls he had seen before, circled around him and laughed.

"Idiota!" one of the girls giggled.

"Can't you see where you were going?" the boy said. "Or what you were leaning on."

Duccio spat out the dirt from his mouth and looked up to see that what he thought was a pillar was actually sacks of spices that had been stacked on one another.

"Ragazzo sporco!" the shopkeeper came after him with a broom. "You ruined my merchandise. Stupido stronzo!"

"Calmare." Duccio said, getting up and raising his hands to shield himself. "Mi dispiace!" And then he ran away as fast as his legs could carry him. He ran all the way to San Marco district and then stopped, gasping for breath and turning all around him to make sure he wasn't being pursued.

He dusted his cap and put it on and then dusted his clothes and hand. He had to find a way to impress Claudia. She looked like she would be wooed easily, but he wanted her to stay for a while too, until he was tired of her. Then he would move on to find someone else, but until then he couldn't risk her breaking off things with him. Like the last one.

Duccio shuddered and started his way back to where Claudia lived. What would a girl like her be impressed by? Docile girls like her, preferred simple things like flowers, which he would of course buy, no steal from his neighbors garden. Fortunately he wouldn't have to spend his florins on dresses, jewelry and scents. Claudia would just be happy if he danced for her.

He was climbing down the stairs when he bumped into someone coming rushing by.

"Ai!" He called.

The man in pale grey tights and a feather in his cap looked frightened. "Mi scusi signore."

"Where are you off in such a hurry?" Duccio chided. "Can't you see where you're going?"

"S-sorry." The man stuttered.

Duccio looked down at the man and saw that he was holding a lute in his hands. "Ah, you're a lute player."

"Si, s-s-signore." The man said. He was sweating as if he had just run away from something terrifying.

"Why do you look so scared?"

"There is no appreciation for my music here!" the man wailed. "I was singing, and this giovane comes over, takes my lute and throws it at me. I was sure the lute was going to break over my head. It is a miracle that my lute is intact."

Duccio put his hands on his hips. "You play well?"

"Si." The man let his fingers strum over the strings. "Somewhere…." He began to sing.

"Ah! Stop!" Duccio said. "You teach too? Or do you only play?"

"I could teach you!" The man said excitedly and then narrowed his eyes. "For a price."

Duccio smiled. "Certamente. Your reward will be to see me not break that lute over your head." He put his arm around the lute player. "Come now, take me to your home and feed your new friend some lunch. I'm starving!"

*/*/*/*/*

After six weeks of intense training, Duccio had finally learned to play the lute. And not only that, he had been able to compose a few love songs too. And all that for his beloved Claudia.

Dressed in a purple shirt and brown vest and leggings, he headed out with a lute in his hands. Today was the day he would impress her. He adjusted his cap and made sure his hair was in place and not sticking out. Then with a bounce in his step, he walked over to the Palazzo Auditore and readied his lute.

No doubt Claudia would hear his playing and rush downstairs to embrace him. Duccio grinned to himself and then started to play, when he heard her voice from somewhere behind him.

"Quanto fastidioso!" It was her!

Duccio gulped as he looked up ahead at her home and saw an elderly gentleman coming through the front door. No doubt he was her Father and by his looks, he looked as if he wouldn't take too kindly to someone trying to woo his daughter.

He ran to hide behind an empty stall and peeked to see the man walk in the other direction with a stack of books under his arm. From the other direction, he saw Claudia with her friends approaching and deep in discussion.

"Those lute players appear out of nowhere and start annoying me." Claudia said. "I don't know how to deal with them anymore."

Her friend giggled. "You could always bring it down over his head, like you did the last time."

Duccio looked down at his lute and then tossed it away, where it went and hit a stocky man on his ankle.

"Eh! Whose is this?" He bellowed.

Duccio lowered his head further until his head was between his knees.

"He deserved it." Claudia said. There was a hint of pride in her voice. "I haven't seen him since."

Her friends laughed and he saw them enter her home. When they were out of sight, Duccio got up and slapped his head.

That was a waste of time. Not only did she hate lute players, she was also not the girl he wanted. A girl who broke lutes over heads wasn't someone who would be so easily allured by his charms. He needed someone simple and foolish enough to believe his empty promises.

After all, he would only be young once and he wanted to spend time with girls he could easily persuade to do whatever he wanted. Claudia was far from what he wanted.

With his hands in his pockets, he started to leave when a thought occurred to him.

Si, he would only be young once, so why not take a risk and go after the one girl everyone was afraid to approach?


End file.
